The success of the continuous plundering gave Ragnar unprecedented self-confidence, and his ambitions expanded to the extreme. He set his sights on Cologne, a large city not far upstream of the river.
Since the wealth of the entire region is being enriched in Cologne, as long as the brothers can successfully seize its monastery, wouldn't they be able to plunder a large amount of gold and silver?
This is definitely not a problem.
The brothers just need to act faster, just like they did in previous operations, quickly complete the looting after landing on the beach, and then quickly evacuate to a safe area before they can react.
Never before had any Vikings penetrated so deeply into the heart of Europe.
In other words, the Russian Blue Fox Gouldson completed the feat of exploration and even reached the Danube River rafting further south. At that time, the Blue Fox hid his true identity and always conducted inspections as a disguised priest.
Not a typical Viking.
So Ragnar knew nothing about Cologne, he only knew that there was a lot of wealth there, so the brothers really sharpened their swords and moved on.
The direction of the river was conducive to the Danish longships sailing against the current. The soldiers placed the looted property and prisoners in the middle of the ships. Everyone used the wide oars and cooperated with the sails to achieve the fastest sailing speed.
The desire for wealth swept away the fatigue of the continuous rowing elbows, and they sang the songs of the north and were approaching Cologne.
They even committed another killing during their trip to China.
The fleet was in an area where a small river merged into a large river, and everyone suddenly saw a village.
Like a snack served before a barbecue feast, the attack on this village was a prelude to the attack on Cologne.
Ragnar and his men landed forcefully and captured the village like a storm.
Although the villagers, old and young, could not immediately understand the situation, they first wanted to protect themselves and their families, so they fled into the forest without any resistance, "giving up" their belongings to the attackers.
The monastery in the poor village naturally became the target of the attack. All the priests and villagers who could not escape in time were killed, and the building was even set on fire.
In their madness, the Danish warriors offered sacrifices to Odin, whom they believed in, with fire and killing. They also chopped down the captured goats and stripped them of their skins. They were so luxurious that they only roasted the meat. As for the many goats and sheep that could not be taken away, they simply
He was also executed directly on Ragnar's instruction.
"We can't take it away, and we can't let the Franks have it anymore. All the sufferings of us Danes are caused by these Franks, so we will take extra revenge in this way."
What he said set a great tone for the inexplicable killing of livestock.
The brothers just had to obey the king's order, and all the captured livestock were killed, but all the lamb legs were cut off, and they took advantage of the ample time and quickly roasted them into cooked food for subsequent dry food.
Their detailed villages are in principle just one of a large number of settlements that appeared along the Rhine, and are essentially nothing special.
It's just that its geographical location is very close to Cologne. If there is a fire here, you will definitely notice the clues in the direction of Cologne.
This village is Dusseldorf, a purely Frankish village built by a group of Franks who immigrated decades ago when Charlemagne was still alive.
Just west of Dusseldorf there are a large number of emerging Frankish settlements with different populations, the largest of which is Gladbach, Mönchengladbach.
Ragnar was killing people here in the name of revenge. According to this theory, the targets of persecution were indeed serious Franks.
The village is full of flammable wooden houses with haystack roofs. Although the autumn rains some time ago affected this area, the dry north wind has returned the houses to a flammable dry state.
The Danes set fires everywhere and billowed out smoke, which was directly reflected in the "red sky" at night.
You know, the straight-line distance between the village of Dusseldorf and the big city of Cologne is only more than 20 kilometers.
It seems like a long distance, but in today's era the air is extremely clear, and every clear night there is a gorgeous Milky Way stretching across the sky.
The fire in the village turned the clouds in the sky dark red, and the strange scene attracted Cologne's strong attention that night.
Because a great man and his powerful army are now in Cologne.
This situation was unexpected by Ragnar, but he was not completely unprepared.
But the two Frankish princes who were caught in the civil war, Lothair and the main force of his Middle Kingdom were still settled in the Strasbourg area in the south. Due to the strategic advantage during the summer, Lothair began to expect his two younger brothers to accept
My own idea is to give up most of my power and live peacefully in a small fiefdom for the rest of my life.
Compared with the initial strong reduction of the vassal order, Lothair has made concessions. The two younger brothers can still hold the title of duke. Although the territory has been severely reduced, the status is still very noble.
Such a decision was absolutely unacceptable to Ludwig of the Eastern Kingdom and Charles of the Western Kingdom.
But now that we have entered the autumn and winter gatherings, the civil war in the kingdom is coming to an end due to the climate. After all, they are all brothers, and the three parties are fighting fiercely on the battlefield, and they must continue to negotiate in private.
It was in this delicate atmosphere that Ludwig received a bolt from the blue.
The rear of the Eastern Kingdom suffered an incredible blow! The Normans invaded in large numbers, and the Saxons mercilessly stabbed them in the back. If it were just this, it wouldn't be a serious problem, but the elite heavy cavalry they sent ended up being annihilated.
Count Robert of the Rheingau, who had full command, only escaped with his life. How dare such a mediocre man, who lost three thousand cavalry, come back to report the tragedy? For the nobleman who had committed such a heinous crime, the furious Ludwig immediately ordered his imprisonment.
, if it were not for the sake of political stability, he would have wanted to directly withdraw his family's ownership of the Rheingau Territory.
Reason prevailed, and he didn't want other nobles to see that his king was a fool with a small belly and easily get into trouble.
The letters sent back, written on special materials, shocked and annoyed him.
When Ludwig reached middle age, he always thought highly of himself as the supreme ruler on the eastern border of the kingdom, but he had a very bad shortcoming - his inability to use Latin proficiently.
Look at these so-called letters written by the King of Rus himself. The words are all in Latin. After being translated by priests, the content of the words is really the most abhorrent provocation and threat.
Behind the provocation and threat, Ludwig's eyes widened and his spine trembled!
Betrayal! There are traitors everywhere. The Saxons betrayed, wouldn’t the Thuringians also betray?
If the Saxons continue to grow bigger, they will inevitably have more unreasonable demands. This is more terrifying than the invasion of the Normans!
He began to regret his move to send Count Liudolf of Westphalia to Denmark, which now seemed like a complete fool's errand.
What he couldn't believe was that the total of three thousand cavalry he sent out was actually wiped out. He knew that the existence of the Kingdom of Ross was just a self-entertainment act of a Norman chief who proclaimed himself king. He arrogantly felt that this did not count.
For this matter, at most he was a northern chief on the same level as Chief Oberlidit, but his main force turned out to be...
The civil war with the brothers was an internal matter within the kingdom, but a group of fierce Normans invaded in large numbers, which was a challenge to the entire kingdom.
Ludwig wrote a letter to his eldest brother Lothair, requesting that the civil war be suspended and that the Eastern Kingdom send troops to attack the invading barbarians.
"No matter what, we must suspend the civil war now. I will lead the army north to attack all invading Normans. The elimination of the barbarians is a just and necessary measure. Please do not cross our existing borders for the sake of morality."
Lothair himself received the letter, and he felt that his brother was just looking for an excuse. In fact, he suffered a loss on the battlefield and planned to push it to the rear to recuperate.
Lothair made his own judgment. He concluded that Ludwig was lying. However, considering the situation of his Middle Kingdom army, he was unable to launch any offensive throughout the winter, so he and his brother Ludwig continued to act out the drama.
. This person replied with a letter: "Since it is a barbarian invasion, please be sure to destroy it. I swear in the name of the king of all Franks that I will not interfere with your great campaign against the barbarians."
In his reply, Lothair did not forget to reiterate that he was the true and only king, and also added the suffix "Duke" after his brother's name in the wording.
Ludwig no longer had time to do oral gymnastics with his eldest brother on specific vocabulary usage, so he immediately wrote back a letter without any intention of praising his eldest brother's wisdom.
In Lothair's view, this was indeed a sign of resignation from his younger brother.
The army of the Middle Kingdom did take visible measures. The army maintained a defensive state, and the garrisons in some areas also dismantled their camps and retreated. Lothair did not want to build a palace in the field area, so he either returned to Aachen to spend the winter, or stayed in St. Petersburg.
He spent the winter at the Rasburg Palace. He decided to choose the latter.
Seeing these measures, Ludwig placed some border troops in defensive positions, and all the elites among them were withdrawn.
Ludwig recruited troops aggressively in the Rheingau region, especially in the villages near Wiesbaden, Mainz, and Worms. The autumn harvest had ended, and the fall and winter slack had arrived. The anxious Ludwig Gu
With the persuasion of Count Robert of the Rheingau, who was not allowed to be imprisoned, he forcibly recruited men to serve in the north.
Even, including all the men in Nassau Village.
Because the Baron of Nassau was also a part of the open rebellion, he even recognized the treasonous Liudov as the king. Ludwig then abolished the barony status of the village of Nassau in the name of the king and demoted him to the rank of knight.
Henry Nassau's entire family was imprisoned, and the other male villagers were forcibly conscripted into the infantry.
Even though some generals persuaded the king to go north to fight in winter, it was a foolish move.
Ludwig was so angry that he couldn't listen at all.
His main army has been stationed in Mainz-Frankfurt, and he has been recruiting troops in the nearby Rheingau area. A group of elites cannot be moved, and he has rapidly expanded the mobile army to as many as 20,000 people!
Large numbers of peasants were forced to fight, and all Sorbian slaves now joined the army.
He even sent an envoy to hurry up and take the original Roman road straight to the Marquis of Thuringia in the northeast.
He ordered the Marquis of Thuringia to do his best to mobilize Thuringian warriors to immediately enter the Saxony area and gather in the direction of Hamburg.
Ludwig did not expect the Marquis of Thuringia to be very cooperative. This was actually a test. The Marquis of Thuringia and his people were integrated into the Frankish Kingdom and were essentially the same as the Flanders and Burgundians.
The measures were very similar, that is, they were not incorporated into the kingdom through large-scale wars. In exchange for politics, the local nobles had huge autonomy and were actually vassals of the same place.
The status of the Thuringian nobility cannot be destroyed by "emptying the cage and changing the bird". The local nobles were loyal to Ludwig and there was indeed no tendency to rebel in the past. But now with the third uprising in Saxon history
After the ethnic rebellion, Ludwig's attitude towards the Thuringians was already very ambiguous. Whether Thuringia sent troops, how many troops they sent, and whether they fought hard to suppress the rebellion became the standard means of testing their loyalty.
He values his own strength more.
Five thousand elite infantry, 10,000 local service militiamen, and nearly 5,000 Sorbian slave soldiers. The former's 15,000 soldiers were the main fighting force, and the latter's 5,000 Sorbian slave soldiers mainly escorted logistics supplies.
There are also a thousand heavy cavalry led by Ludwig himself, and a thousand light cavalry organized by various horses and people who know how to ride. There are also two thousand cavalry.
Thanks to the army stationed in the Mainz area for a long time, there was a smooth Roman road leading to Cologne.
The gathering of these 22,000 people was extremely rapid, after all, most of the soldiers had already been entrenched here.
Worried about the separation of the infantry, cavalry, and baggage and carriage convoys, Ludwig personally led the army to keep the mighty army advancing towards Cologne.
Of course, although the entire journey was only about 150 kilometers long, and it was along existing roads, it was still a huge challenge for Ludwig to have such a large army moving at the same time.
Cavalry and elite infantry have arrived in Cologne one after another.
At this time, the Archbishop of Cologne, Harden Bolt, not only learned of the tragedy in the north, but also wished that brave nobles would organize a rebel army to go north to crusade against the barbarians.
The archbishop and all the priests believed that Ludwig was a good man blessed by the archangel, and that the huge army would be able to wipe out the Norman savages in one fell swoop. For this reason, Cologne immediately provided a large amount of its own tax revenue to support Luther with real food.
Vichy.
Cologne, a city built during the Roman Empire with a total length of six kilometers of stone walls, welcomed a king into the city.
Ludwig led the arriving soldiers to worship in the city's cathedral, because this war was against barbarians who were obsessed with killing, even if the priests felt that they could stop some killings by constantly sending missionaries to persuade those barbarians to convert.
, obviously all the past actions ended in failure, so the archbishop simply took the lead and authorized Ludwig to kill the enemy.
The Archbishop of Cologne anointed the forehead of Ludwig, who was kneeling in front of the icon, and blessed, and then announced: "The Lord forgives your sins! The Lord authorizes you to use a sharp sword to attack the devils in the north, and those apostles of Satan will be defeated by you.
Give death.”
Even the Archbishop of Cologne supported this just move, and the morale of Ludwig's army was unprecedentedly high.
What further pleased him was that the Franks who fled from the north were subjects of the Eastern Kingdom under Ludwig.
The blood of the Franks had not been lost, and they saw a huge army with the style of Charlemagne.
Ludwig had the same style of beard as his grandfather Charlemagne. Everyone said that this king could inherit Charlemagne's military power, just like he conquered the Saxon and Norman world half a century ago. Today's glorious history will
Repeat.
Ludwig was delighted to receive such praise, and he effortlessly recruited as many as two thousand Frankish militiamen in Cologne, armed with their own weapons and horses.
Even the Archbishop of Cologne decided to go to the north in person after some thought. Because there was news that the northern saint Esquier was not dead, but this high-status man actually got together with the rebels. Who was he?
Coercion, or the old guy has his own ideas, everything is unknown.
The Archbishop was still hesitating, but Bishop Hardbolt, King Ludwig of the Eastern Kingdom, and even the people and priests of Cologne all saw the red-hot sky in the northwest.
The priest thought this was a celestial warning or a revelation from God.
But Ludwig, who was extremely sensitive to the battlefield, directly denied all speculations of Bishop Hardbolt: "Are there any bandits near Cologne? It was clearly something burning on a large scale and lighting up the sky."
The bishop didn't know anything about it, and while he was hemming and hawing, Ludwig snatched his words: "If there are bandits, you are seeking death. Bishop, don't panic, my army will go to find out what's going on after dawn."